Hello all! My close to 3/4 acre pond is slowly filling up with the spring I have piped in and rain. A little info about the pond: It is just under 3/4 of an acre and the water you see in the middle is about 5' deep, there is no structure/cover in the middle section whatsoever. The pallet trees you see will be stuffed with dense pine branches just haven't gotten to all of them yet. I will be adding some rip rap/boulders as I have a lot lying around the property in piles, also have access to hundreds of cinder blocks but not sure i'll go to the trouble of adding many more. I've done a ton of research before digging this pond but bottom line is I have no experience ever doing this before and I realize there are many different ways to do things successfully but I am trying to give the pond the best chance of success I can. My question is I have read no more than 3-6 fish attractors per surface acre is a good rule of thumb, with that being said, fish attractors and habitat/structure are 2 different things, and I am unsure of how much cover/structure I should actually have. I read no more than 10% of the pond bottom and obviously focus on the perimeter. To the right of the pic you can not see the right corner but there are a few logs and another brush pile. I am not worried about snags as I would rather have good cover and snags are part of fishing, I have a few stump piles as well. I want to give the smaller fish/fry plenty of cover. Bottom line, my question is, does this look good enough or should I add a lot more brush piles/branches etc for cover for the smaller fish? Thanks in advance guys! Also, the middle section of the pond ranges from 10'-12' deep. I added 10 ton of pea gravel around in piles hoping to increase spawn success rate.

That looks pretty good to me. The only thing I would add is some shallower cover that would be near shore around 1-2 feet deep along the shorelines for preyfish like FHM, GSH, etc.

Thanks for the input! I am glad you said that, I should probably add that it will be a balanced LMB/Forage pond but I am also a big fan of perch and that is one of my main focuses. That being said, besides the birm the picture was taken from with a very gradual slope (maybe 3:1) everything else is pretty aggressive. You can walk up it but it may be about 3:3, I need to check the actual slope. What you cannot see in the pic is the trees and brush pile on the right that is in 2'-4' of water and is decent size.

How did you attach your photo...I've been trying to on the "what size tires" thread, but can't seem to do it...

If you switch to full screen reply there is a file manager below the text box to attach photos.

From what I have learned here and first hand after three years of water is to have more cover along the shoreline or waters edge. And when the pond is new there is no vegetation for the fry to take up residence. The cedars pictured would make good shoreline cover to protect the fry and getting them to a larger size for fast growing lmb. After I did that, I had a boom of cnbg in the 1 to 3" range after the first good spawn.

Thanks for the responses fellas! Lets keep this going as I am running out of time with the pond filling from the spring, I know I can add structure when full but its much easier to place and work with while dry. The question still remains, does this look sufficient?? Or being a new pond with no vegetation should I maybe add a few more downed trees/brush piles to last the first couple years? Thanks! Also, I am going to either add or pull some of the brush/trees on the left up the bank a bit to shallower water.

Just some food for thought....Before the water comes up I would double check that all brush piles, pallets, etc are well weighted or staked to the pond bottom. All that wood will want to float and you don't want all your hard work floating up! I would also connect at least one of the deeper brush piles to shore by making a continuous line of brush to allow forage to "safely" move from spawning grounds to the deeper cover.

Do you plan to put a trash rack on that PVC overflow pipe?

I would add a pile from bottom to about 2 feet below the surface in the deepest part of the pond. That will allow fish to move up and down in the water column as temps and O2 change. Have some thick stuff and some open stuff in the pile.

Great responses guys thanks! Bill, yes I will double check everything, good point. I did anchor the piles and pallet trees with cinder blocks but left the bigger logs alone (maybe I should anchor them). John, Yes I do have a trash rack, thanks for checking! Ewest, great point on making sure some cover connects to deeper points, will fix that this weekend. Thanks a lot fellas!

When I was using tires, (like you) I built tires cover in several different patterns. I have at least a half dozen tire designed cover/structures in the pond. After the water came up I had a three tire design come to the surface and float which was not bad considering how many I had in the pond. So I got in the boat with a battery hand drill and drilled another hole to let the air out that was trapped. The tire structure sunk immediately right there. It was not really where I wanted it to be but had no choice by then, it was all to heavy for me to hold onto or move. So, I suggest you might want to tie the tires down or drive a stake next to the tire cover and tie it down that way. And drill lots of holes in the tires. And you ask how much cover for a pond? Will, my son might tell you I have to much but I don't think I have enough. I am building something (3 pronged) that stands 7' up/vertical cover right now

Can't offer much in the way of advice compared to these fine experienced folks here on the forum, but I did want to say that is a fine looking pond you have in the works there... exciting!!

Keep us posted on the progress... it's gonna be sweet.

/clayton

Very nice TGW, thanks for the tip, but I have no tires in the pond lol.
And thank you Kap! Will update with photos and info on the progress!

I thought about that too ewest. Have something for the fish to congregate around in the dead of winter when the fish go to the warmest water in the bottom of the pond. That is one thing I accidentally got right in my pond (did it before I found PBF). I have quite a bit of structure that goes from the deepest part of the pond all the way to within a foot or so of the surface.

What no tires in the pond? lol Sometimes I am off in my own world, like la la land I looked back and no tires were mentioned, so I don't know how all that tire stuff came up it does make good cover though

Tracy: Lol, I agree they do! I wish I had some lying around, I debated going to a used tire shop and seeing if they have any throw aways which I still may do.

Here in E Texas we will occasionally have some trashy people around that will discard tires along the side of the roads. Hate to admit that goes on here but it does. I have picked up six tires that way and when I did find such things I added them to my cover in the pond. Fact is I am always looking for what's in the right of ways or such places for picking up things I might use for cover. One mans trash is another mans treasures Christmas is getting closer everyday and I usually eyeball discarded Christmas trees also.

Like Tracy said but I too collect artificial Christmas trees, green garland,wreaths and such. I use them for fillers for stuffing into larger structures for the fry and little fish to hide. In 3 years of doing so it has worked very well. Just a thought for you.

20% of the pond surface area is the figure that I like to see used when figuring out how much cover to put in a pond. Design it so that you have thick cover near bedding areas for small fish to hide in, more open cover in some other areas for the predators to ambush their prey from, and also have thicker cover in the deepest part of the pond.

Even if you don't have an aeration system in the pond and the deepest water is unavailable for the fish to use during the summer, they will need that deep water cover for winter.

That allows the smaller fish a place to hide during the winter, and concentrates the predatory fish around those areas, making it easier to catch fish during the winter months.

Without the deep cover, (or rather cover in all water depths) if the water drops, it's like the fish are living in a bathtub, and the forage base can be over eaten.

Thank you guys for all the great responses and suggestions! It is greatly appreciated and have already started making some changes due to some of the comments made. Very glad I was able to do it now as the pond only has about 5 feet to fill and it was much easier to make these changes now rather than when full! I will also be contributing and getting me a subscription to the magazine!